


Freedom

by orphan_account



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Detroit: Become Human (Video Game) RPF
Genre: Canon Compliant, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Feelings Realization, Gen, Last Chance Connor Chapter (Detroit: Become Human), M/M, Memories, Self-Acceptance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22776535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: I wanted to do a closer look into Connor's characters, feelings, and relationship by taking a deeper and more explorative look at chapters 'Last Chance, Connor' and 'Crossroads - Connor'.
Relationships: Connor & Gavin Reed, Connor & Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson/Connor
Kudos: 25





	Freedom

* * *

_**L** **ast Chance, Connor** _

* * *

His mission was not complete, not in the slightest. Far from it, he was a failure. He would be taken back to CyberLife Tower where they would deactivate him, tear him apart, and probe his memory to try and figure out where he went wrong, where he failed as the most advanced, intelligent, and capable android that’s ever been made. He was supposed to be the best of the best and yet, here he stood, a failure. He sat at Hank’s desk, wondering where he went wrong. 

Fowler had screamed at them, at Hank, about the case no longer being theirs. The FBI would take it, specifically, Special Agent Perkins would take it. He remembers him from an antagonistic meeting at the tower where Markus had stealthily entered in with his group of fellow deviants. He had made snobby remarks about Connor being an android, despite the fact he was perfectly capable of handling this investigation and analyzing the evidence as any other human detective. In fact, he was  _ better  _ able to handle it better. He can analyze samples in real time, he can take more damage, and enhance images and see substances others cannot with the naked eye. Even better is that he can be replaced if one of his bio-components were seriously injured and he couldn’t be fixed or saved in time. He was superior, in a way, to normal human detectives, without all the personal and moral baggage at the end of the day. 

He was a machine, designed to accomplish a task, after all. Just like everyone already said of him, just like he was expected to be. Nothing could change that. He’s a machine, created by CyberLife; the most advanced one yet.

“We can’t just give up like that. I know we could have solved this case!” Connor admitted, sitting on Hank’s desk, with something mimicking frustration in humans. It just didn’t seem fair. His mission was a failure now, everything he had done meant nothing now. The endless hours of chasing deviants, analyzing evidence, reconstructing scenes, and working through each case they faced with Hank, despite his own secretive personal turmoil was all for naught. What was the point if he was just going to be tossed to the side? He didn’t understand it! It didn’t make any logical sense to him. 

Hank, who had remained silent ever since Connor had returned to him from Fowler’s office, turned around slowly. He turned his chair around, scooting it to the side to make it easier on himself. His back isn’t what it used to be, after all. His prime is long gone. “So you’re back to CyberLife?” 

Connor looked down for a moment, remembering what was to come. No complaining could stop what was his own present. “I have no choice...I’ll be deactivated and analyzed to figure out why I failed.” 

Hank’s face was serious, his brow drawn down. Due to age, you could see how much clearer he felt. He was pondering something, something that has probably been brewing inside him for a while. He kept his gaze on Connor, unmoving. It was hard, cold as ice even. Connor wouldn’t look away, even if he needed to. It was like he was piercing into Connor’s thrium pump, something that made him unable to move or look away. “What if we’re on the wrong side, Connor? What if we’re just fighting against people who want to be free?” 

“When the deviants rise up, there will be chaos.” Connor was adamant, he was sure this was true. Deviants are a danger to humans, to society if they rally and start this revolution, they call it. No, it was a war. A civil war, he was sure of that. Amanda would agree with him on that much at the very least. “We could have stopped that...but now it’s too late.” 

There was something in Hank’s eyes. Something he couldn’t analyze, something different. Something human. “When you refused to kill that android at Kamski’s place, you put herself in her shoes. You showed empathy, Connor. Empathy is a human emotion.” He was smiling, why was Hank smiling? Hank was a complete grouch all the time. He preferred watching the game with a beer in his hand and avoiding androids at all cost by staying at Jimmy’s Bar, not that it helped much. Why was there something in his eyes, something that might resemble hope? Connor didn’t understand him, as always, Hank was a peculiar fellow. 

“You’re wrong, Lieutenant.” Connor bit down on his resolve. “It was logic that determined my decisions, nothing more.” 

He couldn’t feel empathy. It had to be something else. He wasn’t human, he is a machine. Last time he checked, machines didn’t have feelings or wants or needs. They didn’t aspire with dreams or feel love or anything like it. Deviancy had to be some kind of virus, some kind of malfunction in their system. It only made sense that way, CyberLife was just having a harder time than expected to discover which virus that was. Once they found it, they would add a patch to prevent it, just like how humans do with vaccines. Simple and perfect. It helped machines know and act as they are, just machines. 

Despite all of that, there was one thing he was having trouble saying but he knew he needed to get out. It was weighing on him ever since they entered Fowler’s office and heard the frightful news. Something he’s been thinking for a long time. 

“I’m not programmed to say things like this but I really appreciated working with you. With little more time, who knows? We might’ve become friends.” Connor smiled, letting his thoughts out there in the air. At least Hank knew now. Hank lolled his head back, a small smile on his face. 

Something caught his eye as he looked over Connor and down the hall. “Well, well, here comes Perkins, that motherfucker. Sure don’t waste any time at the FBI.” 

This was it. This was the end of a mission he had been built in mind for. It couldn’t end like this. It didn’t have to. Biting his lip, he turned to the Lieutenant. He spoke with urgency in his step, “We can’t give up! I know the answer is in the evidence we’ve collected. If Perkins takes it, it’s all over.”

“There’s no choice, you heard Fowler. We’re off the case.” Hank spoke indifferently. Maybe this case meant nothing to him but it was the whole reason Connor existed in the first place. He needed to stop the deviants. He needed to stop the civil war. Just like Amanda had said, he was the only one who could. 

“You’ve got to help me, Lieutenant!” Connor slid off the desk in a hurry, leaning towards Hank with something that imitated anxiety rushing through his wires. “I need more time so I can find a lead in the evidence we collected. I know the solution is in there!”

Hank seemed reluctant, on edge a little. “Listen, Connor…”

“If I don’t solve this case, CyberLife will destroy me! Five minutes. That’s all I ask.” Connor pleaded. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want his life’s effort to be a waste of time and effort. He didn’t want to be a failure.

Hank sighed through his nose, smiling for some reason. Once again, he couldn’t figure out why. He stood up from his chair slowly, pushing on the chair’s arms for help. “The key for the evidence room is on my desk...Go on! Get a move on, I can’t distract them forever!”

He felt something like hope swell inside him and burst throughout his veins. He almost hugged Hank to show how thankful he was but now was not the time. He wasn’t sure if there would be a good time. He swiped the key to the Archive room off of Hank’s desk as he heard the loud-mouthed man yell, “Perkins, you fucking cocksucker!” as a loud thump landed on the ground. He almost laughed as he made his way towards the evidence room. Hank was  _ insane.  _

He rounded the corner and pulled the door open, slipping inside. He walked towards the door inside but just before he could reach to open it, Gavin Reed had to walk inside. He had been following him or trailing him as some would put it. It seems this detective’s anger for androids would never fail to cease, not even in such daring times as these. Connor supposes it really only increased in hatred in androids. 

“Hey Connor! I’m talking to you, asshole!” Gavin demanded his attention, as per usual for him. “Where you going? We don’t need any plastic pricks around here! Or didn’t anybody tell you?”

Connor turned his gaze towards the poorly-dressed and groomed detective. He didn’t have time for the annoying bickering! “I’ve been removed from the case. I’m going to register the evidence in my possession and then I’m going to leave.” 

Eyeing him up as usual, Gavin said, “Good. Be careful on your way back...Androids have a tendency of getting themselves set on fire these days.” 

Connor could care less about his mild threat. If Gavin wanted to pay thousands of dollars for breaking or injuring him, he would have done so by now. He’s had plenty of time. Even if he did, Connor could take him easily. He wasn’t a proper match against an prototype android like himself. He pulled the door open, keeping in mind his time limit, and headed down the dark stairway. 

Using the key was easy, however, he was faced with another difficulty he hadn’t thought off in his urgency to try and not get destroyed due to his own failures as an android built for this. “Hank’s password…What would a hard-boiled, eccentric police lieutenant choose?” 

It might be absurd. It was reckless, dumb-founded, and crude, but that are words used to describe Hank himself in many, if not all, cases. It put in ‘fuckingpassword’, surprised to see it glow up in green. He almost didn’t want to believe someone was smart, brave, and quick enough to be a police Lieutenant, second-in-command, would choose such an irresponsible password to guard their possessions, both at work and home. 

“Obviously.” He was still trying to process that. Hank really needed a stern lecture about how to keep his passwords locked and guarded against technological threats such as hackers, viruses, and etc. Not was not the time as he was currently in a fistbrawl with Special Agent Perkins, not that Perkins didn’t deserve a broken nose. 

He watched as the evidence panels were brought forth. He muttered to himself, “Where is Jericho? The answer’s here somewhere.” 

Deep within all the evidence they’ve had in their possession, the answer was hiding. The first thing that drew his eye was the transparent tablet sitting in a cubicle. He picked it up and watched it carefully, hoping for something to pop out at him. 

‘Markus, where are you hiding?’ He thought to himself as Markus’s speech stopped playing. He glanced over to his left, looking over the deviant’s bodies. He recosizinged the uniform one of them were wearing, it was from the Channel 16 TV Station Tower. 

‘One of the deviants that hacked the TV station with Markus. It must have known where the deviants were hiding!’ He analyzed the body of the deviant, examining it thoroughly. He needed to reactive it. The only way to reactivate it was to get another #3983v. It was damaged when Connor saved the lives of everyone back when it tried to escape by shooting it. 

He turned his head over to Daniel, the deviant who threatened to jump off the roof with his owner’s daughter. His #3983v wasn’t damaged and theoretically, if he took out Daniel’s and placed it into this deviant, then reactivation should be able to happen successfully. 

Yes! Now that was a plan. He marched over to Daniel’s unmoving corpse and removed the bio-component before making his way over the deviant. He shoved it inside the android. Now he could make some progress in the little time he had left. He watched the android’s eyes move around, they were peculiar. Black and blue, his optical functions must have gotten damaged somehow when he shot him.

“It’s dark.” The deviant spoke, only confirming Connor’s suspicion. “Where - where am I?” 

Connor tried to think. What was the best approach? He decided on trying to trick the deviant into thinking he was one of them. “I’m a deviant like you, I need your help. I want to go to Jericho.”

The deviant was hostile, untrusting of him. “I don’t recozinge your voice...you’re not one of us! I’ll never tell you where Jericho is! Now, leave me alone!” 

Crap, this wasn’t going the way he planned or hoped. He needed to trick this deviant. He had to find a way or he would be terminated! He couldn’t fail his mission, he couldn’t disappoint Amanda! But how? 

He stepped back, knowing his objective was to trick the deviant. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and glanced over the evidence. What was the right approach? Scanning over the wall of evidence, his gaze was immediately brought back to Markus’s speech on the tablet. Of course!

Not only was he superior by a human in all the other aspects but unlike humans, if he has a clear, viable recording or video, he can sample someone’s voice and imitate their voice. He grabbed the speech and started analyzing the copy to reach his goal. It was successful and he made his way back over to the deviant. 

“Who’s there? Who are you?” The deviant said, sensing someone in front of him. His gaze was uncertain. 

“Everything is all right. Don’t worry.” Connor imitated Markus’s voice to perfection. Amanda would be proud. He could do this, he could be successful!

“Markus?” The deviant questioned. “Is that you? I tried to reach you but the deviant hunter stopped me.” 

“You stopped him from finding me, you saved me! You saved Jericho!” Connor felt almost wrong that he was doing this but it was for the sake of the mission. Whatever it needed. “You’ll be all right now. I came to take you home. Give me the location to Jericho. We’ve got to leave now.”

“The location of Jericho?” The deviant questioned. Connor was almost worried he had suspected something was off. “Yes...yes, of course!” 

Nothing to concern himself with after all. Connor reached forward, retracking his skin back and grabbed the deviant’s forearm. In a single moment, he saw it all. From the moment the android was activated, he was sold, to the fateful day he helped Markus in his mission, including when Markus helped convert him and showed him the location. His mission was close to completion. Just a little more now. 

“Markus?” The deviant fell forward, his hand landing on Connor’s shoulder. “Is that...you, Markus? Don’t leave me, Markus!” 

Connor felt sorry for it. He grabbed onto #3983v and pulled it out, automatically his shutdown following suit without the needed bio-components. There, he laid still like he had before. Nothing was amiss. 

He knew where to go and what he needed to do now. It was only a matter of time now. 

He was long gone, walking out of the Detroit Police Department as the alarm was hit, alerting every officer there had been someone who was unauthorized messing around where they shouldn’t have. He was closer to completing his mission, that’s all that matters.

But still, something seemed amiss. Something seemed...off in his systems. Nevertheless, he would run a diagnostic on his way to the scene of Jericho.

* * *

_**Crossroads - Connor** _

* * *

Jericho. It was a large boat, huh? It was a little crowded, that’s for sure. There were probably hundreds of androids -  _ deviants _ \- in this ship. There were probably thousands. They did attack CyberLife stores all around Detroit, after all. It only made sense. 

He was trying to keep a low-profile, act like a regular deviant. He was out of his required uniform, someone might recozinge his uniform as the famous deviant hunter or suspect something is off with him. It didn’t help that the media had covered his existence and his cooperation with the DPD. 

He was dressed shabbily. A beanie was pulled down over his hair and LED circle on his left temple. Long gone was his jacket and armband as the law requires but a bland sweater with jacket thrown over his tall stature. It was cold out, after all. To anyone else, he looked like any other human, but these androids knew better. They were all deviants trying to pass by as this same thing. 

However, he only needed for a mere few minutes as he slipped in and out. He just needed to slip around and find out where their leader, Markus, was. When he did, he slipped outside the boat, standing on guard for the perfect opportunity. He took this chance and called Perkins, leaving an anonymous tip on where the last of the deviant androids could be hiding out. He heard the argument, no, the discussion Markus and his companions had. Did he really expect to win? Was he that delusional? 

They were made, not born. They’re machines, not humans. So why did only Connor understand that? 

He made his move nevertheless. 

He saw Markus’s bent over back. A long cloak was clinging onto his body as he looked down at the no longer working panel of Jericho. He was probably trying to process the decision he was bringing himself to make. This was no time for analyzing, however, but rather, a time for action.

“I’ve been ordered to take you in alive.” He drew his gun, pointed straight at Markus as the leader in question slowly turned around. Finally, he had met his enemy face to face at last. He just needed to capture him and his mission would be completed. He would succeed. 

The mission is all that matters. 

“But I won’t hesitate to shoot you if you give me no other choice.” Connor reminded himself to remain stern and unmoving, like a statue or like this boat that has been rusting away for ages, left untouched and unbothered until the androids moved in. 

He watched as Markus’s expression changed. He was curious, flabbergasted. It was like what he saw before him made no sense, like it wasn’t logical. 

“What are you doing?” His voice was light, full of emotion. Deviants do claim to be alive and have feelings, like any other human, but that wasn’t true. He knew that much. He kept his gun on him as Markus took a cautious step forward. “You are one of us, you can’t betray your own people.”

They weren’t people, they are  _ machines _ ! 

“Don’t force me to neutralize you.” Connor demanded. 

“You’re Connor, aren’t you?” Connor felt some kind of unwanted flinch go to him. He expected people might recozinge him, but Markus… “That famous deviant hunter. Well, congratulations, it seems you found what you were looking for,”

That didn’t sit right with Connor for some reason. Something about what he said left an awful taste in his mouth. It didn’t feel right or just. 

“We are your people, we’re fighting for  _ your  _ freedom too!” Markus stepped forward, it felt like he cared. It was frightening in a way to Connor. He felt like Markus could understand, like he knew really knew Connor and cared for him nonetheless. These feelings weren’t in his program, they went against his orders. They weren’t helping him at all. “You don’t have to be their slave anymore.” 

He had nothing to say to any of that. Maybe he wanted to yell. Maybe he wanted to shoot. Maybe he was tired of hearing what Markus has to say because it was becoming something far too much. Something he wasn’t meant to hear, no, something he wasn’t meant to  _ understand  _ and  _ want.  _ They’re machines. They are designed to accomplish one task over and over in a variety of ways, that’s what they’ve always been and always will be. 

Connor was designed for this mission in mind. 

And the mission is the only thing that matt - 

“Have you never wondered who you really are?” Markus questioned, tilting his head to the side. He was curious, interested in the reality Connor was seemingly forcing himself to abide by. “Whether you’re just a machine executing a program or a living being, capable of reasons. I think the time has come for you to ask yourself that question.” 

‘A living being, I’m an android just as you are!’ Connor couldn’t help but think. ‘We’re not - !’

“Have you never had any doubts?”

Connor felt his confidence in himself waver for a mere moment there. He remembers talking to Amanda, accusing her of being a liar, of keeping secrets from him. He remembers questioning her about his mind palace and her existence despite the original Amanda being long dead before he was ever created or activated. 

“You’ve never done something irrational, as if there’s something inside you?”

Connor hates to admit it, but there’s been more than once that something like that has happened. He remembers Chole, her smile as she let him and the Lieutenant inside. He remembers her leading to Kamski’s pool room and he remembers vividly as Kamski talked about his own special test. Her pressing her knees against the soft white carpet rug that was laid out, a handgun he found himself wrapping his fingers around, and an arm aiming the barrel at her forehead. He vaguely recalls Hanks demands for them to go, for Connor not to shoot while Kamski only urged him on, wondering if a machine, like himself, could feel empathy. 

He couldn’t pull the trigger. He couldn’t at the Eden Club either. When those girls were attacking him all the way into the alleyway, he couldn’t just grab the handgun and pull the trigger. He could have pulled it, he was perfectly able to.

But it felt wrong. It sent something wrong, something dangerous deep inside him as spread to all of his wires that made him up. Something  _ inside  _ him couldn’t handle that. 

He couldn’t handle murdering another android, like himself, even if they were deviants.

Even though it went against his programming. His case. His precious _ mission _ . 

“Something more than your program.”

_ Hank.  _

He thought about Hank. He remembers how something flipped inside him at the thought of Hank falling off the ledge. Even though his program demanded it of him, how his objective was right in front of him reminding him what he needed to do, he couldn’t let Hank die. He just couldn’t. He had to stop, despite everything else in his code demanding he doesn’t. He had to save Hank.

He recalls at the Channel 16 station tower, how the deviant had ran. How the thirumpump had been torn out of him and how he was left for dead, but he didn’t want to die. He couldn’t. He even cried out for Hank. He remembers shoving it back inside, racing towards the door and warning everyone. He watched as the deviant took a fellow officer’s gun and was ready to shoot to kill.

Despite the fact he wanted it alive, no, he  _ needed  _ it alive, he killed it. Once again, not only were humans lives at risk, but Hank’s life was at risk. 

His entire relationship with Hank was something much more than his program. Every smile, every piece of laughter, every little retort and playful insult at Connor was something that made him glow. It made him happy because  _ Hank _ was happy.

His feelings for Hank were so much more than his program.

“It’s time to decide.” Markus stepped forward, his chin held high. He stared at Connor, waiting for his choice, seeing what he would do.

He wanted to see Hank again. 

‘Stop Markus’ glowed in red, something he had never seen before. Was this his program? His immediate orders from CyberLife? They had to be. 

It was an out-of-body experience. He, himself, wasn’t moving and yet he was. It was like something inside him was moving, fighting against the codes and numbers in his program that made him obey. It was something entirely new, something unknown. It was a different type of struggle. 

He needed to tear it. He wanted to break those walls, those orders. He wanted to understand what it meant to be deviant, to be alive, to be able to feel without denying himself the truth.

What it meant to be free. 

So he did. He shattered his orders with all his might. He broke his programming until it was nothing left than him. Not a computer, not a machine, but a living being, just like Markus had said. 

The first free thought was the stupidest one of all. 

_ Could Hank ever love a machine? _

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I thought of making a second part of this where I go more into Connor's personal thoughts and how he handles his newfounded realized feelings for the lieutenant in the CyberLife Tower chapter and explore more into the Connor & Hank Secret Ending where they meet up at Chickenpeek and hug, possibly the aftermath of everything. I'm not sure if I should make a series or not, I'd love to, but I'm undecided on the matter. I hope you guys like this at the very least! I think if I did make this a series, I'd call it, 'What Freedoms Brings' or 'What It Means To Be Free'


End file.
